Mail-distributing system



Feb. 27, 11923. 11, 146,693

F. CHURCHILL MAIL DISTRIBUTING SYSTEM Fi1ed Dc 15, 1921 INVENTOF? flaw/r UfiL/mhi 1 ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 27, llQZB warren stares FRANK GHUBCHILL, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOR TO V ILLIAM E. PUGH, 0F

SEATTLE, VJASHINGTON. I

MAIL-DISTRIBUTING SYSTEM.

' Application filed December 13, 1921.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANK C'HUROHILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, county of King, and State of VVashington, have invented a new and useful Mail-Distributing System; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact specification, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention is a device for facilitating the distribution of mail in the post office by eliminating the continuous handling of it and concentrating the sorting to one section by making the boxes into which the mail is placed very small at the point where it is placed into them and having chutes going from these boxes to larger bins thru which the mail will travel by gravity.

The object of the invention is to provide a case or cases with very small openings with chutes leading from them to larger bins from which the mail may be taken by the carrier or others, to be used in place of the large cases with large openings, which necessitate the distributing of the mail by tossing or throwing it.

Another object of the invention is to provide an elevator which will elevate the mail trucks to a higher floor level so that the bags may be taken from the trucks and dumped thru a hole in the floor into a stor age bin from where the mail will be fed by gravity to the sorting table in front of the cases from which it will travel by gravity thru enlarging chutes to large bins on the main floor, which arrangement will facilitate the handling of mail as it will eliminate the dumping of the mail into the lobby, the loading of it onto trucks which, haul it to the workroom and deposit it on the floor in front of the primary table, the dumping of it onto the primary table, the replacing of it into bags which are dragged to the main oifice cases or station racks and the lifting of it again to dump it onto the tables for a final distribution to the carriers.

Another object of the invention is to concentrate the openings into which mail is distributed'b making the openings smaller and having 0 utes carry the mail from these openings by gravity to larger bins which will make it much easier for the distributor and lessen the possibility of error, as, under the present system for distributing paper Serial No. 522,097.

mail, the cases are so large that it is necessary for the distributor to toss the mail to some of the openings and even though he may have intended to throw it into the right opening, it is possible for him to make a miss-throw;

And still another object of the invention is to provide a case with small openings in it having chutes leading from these openings to larger bins which may be made in sections so that any number of them may be placed around a single operator and also which may be arranged so that another operator may tak the mail from the bins and re-distribute it to other cases or sets of cases, which will in turn convey it thru chutes by gravity to other larger bins.

With these ends in view, the invention embodies an elevator installed in the post office of suflicient size to carry a mail truck, a bin located below a'fioor several stories above the main floor having a sloping bottom and cases with small openings in them having chutes leading from the openings to larger bins. I

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the drawings, whereint Figure 1 is a part section showing, the entire system.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic section on line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a similar Section showing smaller openings for letter cases. c

Figur 4 is a part of a similar section showing the openings built on an angle instead of vertical.

Figure 5 is a front elevation of the letter case shown in section in Figure 3.

In the drawings I have shown my system as it would be used for distributing paper mail in Figure 1 where it would be brought in on the main floor 1 on a mail truck and hauled onto the platform 2 of an elevator 8 vwhich would carry it up to the dumping floor 4:. At this floor the con tents of th sac-ks will be dumped into the opening 5 thru which the mail will pass into the bin 6 which has a sloping bottom 7 and from this it will slide by gravity thru the opening 8 and on to the board 9 in front of the case 10. The operator standing upon the floor 11 picks up the mail from the board 9 and distributes it into the openings 1% thisc-ase maybe made as large asdesired or 1n several sections arranged arounda point where theoperator may stand or the entire case may be constructedin the form of a semi-circle or circle with the chute feeding into the center of it. In the floor 4 I have also shown another opening 13 opening into a bin 14 which would chute mail onto a table or board 15 from where it maybe distributed into large openings 16 from where it will pass thru chutes 17 to larger bins 18 on the main floor 1. This arrangement may be used for parcelpost packages which may be pic'kedout of the mail as it is dumped into the opening'5.

From the openings 12 in the case 10 the mail "willpass down chutes 19 to bins 20 from where it betali'en by the carriers or others, or in large post offices it may be taken from the bins QO'and re-distributed to an "additionalset of cases '10.

In Figures? and 5 Ihave shown an alternate arrangement of the openings in the case 10 which would be ar'rangedin small oblong openings 21 which would be a little larger than the size of a letter and these would be connected to the chutes 22 which 'wouidconvey the letters tothe bins 23 from "where they would be taken by the carrier or if necessary may be redistributed to additional cases.

In Figure 4 I have shown another alternate arrangement in which the case 10 is set 'on aslant instead of 1n a"vert1cal position which would makeit easier for a person sitting'on a stool in front of'it to reach the upper opening and it will also be un- 'ders'tood that this casemay be placed in a. horizontal position if desired.

It 'will be understood that other changes maybe made without departing from the spirit of the invention. One of which ohanges inay bein the use of a different "type of elevator for elevating the mail as an endless belt or chain may be used to' conmy the sacksor mail to the bins. Another "may be inthe sh'apeof the bins or in the shape ofthe openings to the bins which may be s'oconstructed that only mail. of certain sizes will'be admitted tof the'bin. And still another change .may be'in the shape ofthe 'caseulO which may .have anynumber of openingsin it or may be higher or 'wi deror circular or mayjhave individual chutes coinf'f'rom'the "openings in it which chutes may' be ciirved or" straight as maybe necesnot.

sarygto' reach thebinsfwhich may be located iatnany (lbflvenient posltions and these bins may be constructed as desired with or without doors or partitions to checkthe mail.

The construction will be readily understood from the foregoing description. To use the device the bags of mail. when coming into the post ofice are loaded on trucks in the usual manner and instead of being dumped into the lobby from the trucks, lifted and dumped upon the primary tables, sorted and placed into bags, again lifted to trucks or dragged 'to'the'inain ofiice cases and again lifted and dumped upon the tablesfor final distribution, it is placed upon anelevator, elevated to a'higher floor where the bags are dumped from the trucks'into bins which have slopingbottomls so that it will slide down to boards in front of cases sible for one operator to distribute a large quantity of mail over a very large district. By this system, a very small quantity of men can do the work ofthe'entire force now employed'in the distributing rooms and the work will be mucheas'ier for each man" as it would be possible for him to do all of the work by standing in one position or ifdesired he may use a stooland dopractically all of it sitting in one'position. "This is especially true with the letter case these openings maybe very small "while the bins may be lar e enough toacco nmodate any quantity of'mail and during the rush season. the mail 'inay be storedi'n'them instead of taking it out and storingit on the carriers desks. I k v Having thus fully described theinvention what I claim is new an'ddesire to secure by Letters; Patent is In a mail distributing system of'thejtype described the combination. of a (platform elevator, adapted to carry a truck of inail sacks, with a platform upon which'the'tiuck maybe rolled'and in which are a series of small openings forma'il and a lfs'eries of large openings for parcel post pacl'mgesso that the sacks may be opened'on this platform and the contents dumped intojeither series of openings; separate bins below the openings a secondfplatform below the bins and individual sections of chutesi leading from positions in front of'jtheop ening's of the bin to largerindividualbihsbelow from which themail maybe taken by carriers.

FRANK CHURCHILL. 

